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docs: four-section /docs/ restructure with new-user content, accuracy pass, and gateway feature-set rewrite
Restructures /docs/ by reader purpose (tutorials, how-to, reference, design), adds the new-user-progression and operator-recipe content the prior layout lacked, runs an accuracy pass against current source across the pre-existing design docs, and rewrites the gateway feature-set documentation end-to-end around its actual operational profile (a niche feature designed for systems already serving DHCP/DNS to a LAN, with two independent halves — outbound LAN→mesh, inbound mesh→LAN — sharing one nftables table, one binary, and one control socket). Top-level README and getting-started rewritten around two equally-weighted deployment modes (overlay on existing IP networks; ground-up over non-IP transports). ## Additions - 11 new tutorials in docs/tutorials/: an 8-step new-user progression from single-daemon test-mesh peering through to a ground-up two-device mesh, an IPv6-adapter side-trip walkthrough, an Advanced Tutorials index, and a hand-held OpenWrt walk-through for fips-gateway deployment that exercises both halves of the feature. - 12 new how-tos in docs/how-to/: firewall activation, Nostr discovery (resolve / advertise / open across five scenarios), Tor onion (directory + control_port modes), UDP buffer tuning, unprivileged-user setup, persistent identity, host aliases, Bluetooth LE peering, MTU diagnostics, manual Linux-host gateway deployment (covers both halves), gateway troubleshooting (organised by half), and a section index. - 9 new reference docs in docs/reference/: configuration, wire formats, control-socket protocol, four CLI references (fips, fipsctl, fipstop, fips-gateway), security posture matrix, and Nostr events catalog. Configuration and wire-formats are renamed-and-extended from prior design/ versions; the other seven are net-new. - 6 new design docs: fips-concepts, fips-architecture, and fips-prior-work split out of the deleted fips-intro.md; consolidated fips-mmp and fips-mtu aggregations; and a new generic port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal doc (Nostr-signaled port advertisement plus UDP NAT-traversal protocol, FIPS as an example implementation, suitable for eventual NIP submission). - Top-level docs/getting-started.md walking through the binary-installer-only Install story. - packaging/common/hosts pre-populated with the eight public test-mesh nodes so shortnames resolve out of the box on every fresh install. ## Changes - 23 wire-format diagrams relocated to reference/diagrams/ alongside the wire-formats move. - 4 design diagrams corrected against source code (fips-protocol-stack, fips-identity-derivation, fips-coordinate-discovery, fips-routing-decision). - 10 pre-existing design docs reconciled with current source. Numeric corrections: stale link-MMP report bounds (now [1s, 5s] with 200 ms cold-start floor); UDP default MTU (now 1280, IPv6 minimum); node_addr formula (SHA-256(pubkey)[..16]); Noise patterns (IK at link, XK at session); peer-ACL semantics (strict allowlist requires ALL in peers.deny); daemon DNS upstream ([::1]:5354); on-the-wire bloom-filter size (1,071 bytes); obsolete Cargo-feature references (PR #79 dropped them) removed. - Transport framing tightened across the docs: TCP is for UDP-filtered networks (not NAT traversal); Tor is a deployment mode (not failover); WebSocket dropped (not a shipped FIPS transport); WiFi promoted to Implemented via Ethernet in infrastructure mode; classic-Bluetooth row removed (BLE is the only Bluetooth-mode transport). - docs/design/fips-gateway.md rewritten end-to-end to lead with the niche-feature framing and the two-halves structure. Title moved from "FIPS Outbound LAN Gateway" to "FIPS Gateway"; architecture section describes the common machinery (the fips-gateway service, the nftables table, the control socket) before splitting into separate "Outbound Half" and "Inbound Half" sections of equal weight; security considerations split per-half; no Future Work section (speculative directions live in the project tracker, not in protocol design docs). Inbound port forwarding is a first-class half rather than a buried "Implemented Extensions" subsection. - Gateway terminology unified across all gateway docs as a separate Linux service running alongside the fips daemon (its own systemd unit / OpenWrt init script). Container- pattern terms (sidecar) are reserved for the Docker/Kubernetes sidecar deployment examples — the testing/sidecar/ tree, examples/k8s-sidecar/, examples/sidecar-nostr-relay/, examples/wireguard-sidecar-macos/, and the related CHANGELOG / top-level README entries — where the term carries its standard container meaning. - Net-new design body content: rekey section in fips-mesh-layer (Noise IK msg1/msg2 over the established link, K-bit cutover, drain window, smaller-NodeAddr-wins tie-breaker on dual-init); Mesh Size Estimation and Antipoison FPR Cap sections in fips-bloom-filters; Mesh-Interface Query Filter subsection in fips-ipv6-adapter; failure-suppression knobs and clock- skew tolerance in fips-nostr-discovery; loop-rejection and mid-chain ancestor swap added to spanning-tree propagation / stability rules; Priority Chain in fips-mesh-operation renumbered to match the routing-decision diagram. - Top-level README: dropped the stale nostr-discovery cargo-feature parenthetical. docs/README.md and the four section READMEs (tutorials, how-to, reference, design) refreshed for the new structure; index rows reflect both halves of the gateway feature and the new fips-gateway CLI reference. - Cargo.toml [package.metadata.deb] assets path updated for the fips-security.md move; .gitignore /reference/ rule anchored to repo root so docs/reference/ is trackable. - packaging/openwrt-ipk/files/etc/fips/fips.yaml configuration-doc URL updated to the new docs/reference/configuration.md location. ## Deletions - docs/design/fips-intro.md (split into the three new intro design docs). - docs/design/document-relationships.svg (orphan, no longer referenced). - docs/proposals/ tree removed; the only proposal it contained (the Nostr UDP hole-punch protocol) was rewritten as the new generic design/port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal.md.
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# Enable the Mesh-Interface Firewall
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FIPS ships a default-deny nftables baseline at `/etc/fips/fips.nft` that
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restricts inbound traffic on the `fips0` mesh interface to conntrack
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replies and ICMPv6 echo. The baseline is **not** enabled by default — see
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[../design/fips-security.md](../design/fips-security.md) for the threat
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model and the rationale behind keeping activation explicit. This guide
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covers the operator steps to load the baseline, extend it with per-host
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allowances, and inspect drops.
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## Activate the baseline
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The package ships `fips-firewall.service`, a systemd oneshot that runs
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`nft -f /etc/fips/fips.nft` on start and removes the `inet fips` table
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on stop. To activate:
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```sh
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sudo systemctl enable --now fips-firewall.service
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```
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This loads the table now and arranges for it to load on every subsequent
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boot. To disable and tear it down:
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```sh
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sudo systemctl disable --now fips-firewall.service
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```
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To reload after editing `/etc/fips/fips.nft` or adding a drop-in under
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`/etc/fips/fips.d/`:
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```sh
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sudo systemctl reload-or-restart fips-firewall.service
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```
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The file is idempotent — it begins with `add table inet fips; flush
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table inet fips;` so re-running it replaces the live ruleset atomically.
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Equivalently:
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```sh
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sudo nft -f /etc/fips/fips.nft
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```
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## Folding the baseline into the host's main nftables
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If you prefer to load the baseline from your existing
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`/etc/nftables.conf` rather than via the systemd unit, include it
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directly:
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```nft
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# in /etc/nftables.conf
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include "/etc/fips/fips.nft"
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```
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In that case do **not** enable `fips-firewall.service` — the host's main
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nftables setup owns the loading. The two paths are mutually exclusive.
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## Extend with per-host allowances via drop-ins
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The baseline drops everything inbound on `fips0` except conntrack
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replies and ICMPv6 echo. To open specific services to specific mesh
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nodes, drop a file into `/etc/fips/fips.d/` ending in `.nft`. Each
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file is included inline into the `inbound` chain at the marked point
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and may contain any nftables rule lines valid in that context.
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Reload after editing:
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```sh
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sudo systemctl reload-or-restart fips-firewall.service
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# or: sudo nft -f /etc/fips/fips.nft
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```
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### Allow inbound SSH from a specific mesh node
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```nft
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# /etc/fips/fips.d/ssh-from-bastion.nft
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ip6 saddr fd97:1234:5678:9abc:def0:1234:5678:9abc tcp dport 22 accept
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```
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The source filter is the node's mesh address. To find a node's mesh
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address, look in their `fips.pub` (which contains the npub) and derive
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the `fd97:...` address from it, or query the running daemon:
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```sh
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fipsctl show identity-cache
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fipsctl show peers
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```
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### Allow inbound DNS broadly
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Some services need to be reachable from any mesh node (a public DNS
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resolver, a public bootstrap node):
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```nft
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# /etc/fips/fips.d/dns-public.nft
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udp dport 53 accept
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tcp dport 53 accept
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```
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Omit the source filter only when the service is intended to be
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universally reachable on the mesh. The baseline's purpose is to make
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"universally reachable" an explicit decision rather than the default.
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### Multiple nodes, one service
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```nft
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# /etc/fips/fips.d/git-from-trusted.nft
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ip6 saddr {
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fd97:1111:2222:3333:4444:5555:6666:7777,
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fd97:8888:9999:aaaa:bbbb:cccc:dddd:eeee
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} tcp dport 9418 accept
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```
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Set syntax keeps multi-node rules readable and is more efficient than a
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chain of individual rules.
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## Inspect drops
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The baseline counter increments on every dropped packet. Inspect it:
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```sh
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sudo nft list table inet fips
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```
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Look for the `counter packets N bytes M drop` line at the bottom of the
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`inbound` chain. A non-zero counter means mesh nodes are sending
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traffic that hits the default-deny — usually benign (probes, neighbor
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discovery) but occasionally a misconfigured drop-in.
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To see which packets are being dropped, uncomment the `log` line near
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the bottom of `/etc/fips/fips.nft`:
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```nft
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log prefix "fips drop: " level info limit rate 10/minute
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```
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Reload:
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```sh
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sudo nft -f /etc/fips/fips.nft
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```
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Then tail the kernel log:
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```sh
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sudo journalctl -k -f -g "fips drop:"
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```
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The rate-limit prevents flooding the journal under sustained probing.
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Adjust the rate, log level, or prefix as needed for the situation.
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Re-comment the rule when you are done; production hosts do not need
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the log line on by default.
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## See also
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- [../design/fips-security.md](../design/fips-security.md) — threat
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model, baseline design, and coexistence with other firewalls
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- [../reference/security.md](../reference/security.md) — consolidated
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security reference
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